In 1999, Napster was for me, in one word, Amazing.  Suddenly I could download pretty much any MP3 I ever wanted, free and (relatively) quickly.  I would spend days hunting down entire catalogues and my hard drives quickly filled with the music I thought I wanted.  Nine years later, and the necessity of actually having to download the tunes is disappearing. With the ubiquity of in browser flash players like the Hype Machine, and now Grooveshark, there really isn’t any need to download the tune.  Play pretty much any tune …

I have been a huge R.E.M. fan for, well a very long time, seing them live a whack of times, including the unforgettable Yonge & Dundas show.  It’s been fifteen years since their Automatic For The People album, and Stereogum has done a great job putting together an eclectic, amazing tribute album.  From the essay:
Unlike most other celebrated, canonized records from the early ’90s, R.E.M.’s eighth album stands separate from the prevailing cultural trends of the era. Whereas most other rock bands at the time either embraced the aggressive, self-destructive …